Fly in close to all our sun’s planets

at star shows Oct. 17, 31

BELLEVUE, WASH. – Fly in close for stunning views of all our sun’s planets at the Bellevue Community College Planetarium star shows Oct. 17 and 31.

Beginning at 6, 7 and 8 p.m. both days, each show will take viewers on a sometimes-dizzying, virtual spaceflight via advanced digital graphics on a domed ceiling.

Pre-paid reservations are required and are available online through Oct. 11 only at www.ticketwindowonline.com (search their site for “planetarium”) or 206-325-6500.

Beginning Oct. 12, tickets will be available for purchase at the BCC bookstore, located in the Student Services Building, near the flagpole on the college’s main campus (3000 Landerholm Circle S.E., Bellevue, at the intersection of S.E. 28th St. and 148th Ave. S.E.).

Tickets are $3.25 each when purchased by Oct. 11 through ticketwindowonline.com, and $2 each when purchased after Oct. 12 in person at the BCC bookstore.

Because the planetarium must be totally dark during the show, no one will be admitted once the presentation begins.

The show is not recommended for children age five and younger.

Each 40-minute show will also feature a brief lecture by Lisa Hill, a children's science writer and amateur astronomer. Hill has taught astronomy to elementary and middle school students for more than eight years and has developed numerous science books and educational activities for that level.

Bellevue Community College’s Willard Geer Planetarium was the first to be built in the Puget Sound region and, thanks to donors to the Bellevue Community College Foundation, is the only one in the region and one of the few worldwide to use the advanced Digistar 3 system to project and move images.

The planetarium was the brainchild of Willard Geer, BCC’s first physics instructor and one of the inventors of color television.

Today the 60-seat planetarium is in almost constant use as a classroom for 1,400 BCC astronomy students and a popular field-trip destination for 1,600 middle-school students each year.

For more information about Geer Planetarium and the upcoming star shows, call the BCC Science Division at 425-564-2321.

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